Sprint Said to Talk About Partnership

By LAURA M. HOLSON and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED

Published: July 16, 2008

Sprint Nextel, the wireless carrier, is in early talks to form a partnership with SK Telecom of South Korea to share information about mobile phones and other technology, according to people briefed on the talks.

The two companies have also discussed whether SK Telecom would consider a minority investment in Sprint, but nothing is imminent, these people said. The discussions, which were conducted informally in the last few weeks, are at an early stage and may not result in any deal.

Sprint's stock climbed 9 percent, to $9.04 Tuesday, after CNBC reported that SK Telecom was in talks to acquire Sprint.

A Sprint spokeswoman declined to comment. But it is not the first time that Sprint has talked with SK Telecom about a partnership. Last year, Sprint turned down a $5 billion offer from SK Telecom and Providence Equity Partners, which were interested in buying a minority stake.

Sprint, which has struggled with customer defections, recently named a new chief executive, Daniel R. Hesse, who is trying to turn around the company. But there has been speculation about its future. Earlier this year, Deutsche Telekom of Germany mulled whether to make a bid for the company, people apprised of the situation said then. Sprint too explored whether to spin off its Nextel unit.

Under Mr. Hesse's leadership, Sprint is trying to appease its 52.8 million customers.

As chief, Mr. Hesse has encouraged more partnerships. This spring Sprint entered into a new high-speed wireless venture with Clearwire and a consortium of disparate partners, including Google, Intel, Comcast and Time Warner. The company hoped the deal would give it a two-year edge over AT&T and Verizon in high-speed service, both at home and on mobile phones.